Swine Flu news and updates thread

Originally posted by FlyersFan
reply to post by Aeons

 

Okay .. this looks very interesting but I'm not a virologist. Someone please explain it to me. Are there now multiple strains of this thing out there?

I guess that would explain that we've heard everything from 'I've had worse papercuts' to 'it was so bad that I just wanted to die'.

It looks like there are two strains that are the most common right now, but there is like 20 on that list. (I really should just count them).

Flu's get transcription errors when replicating. This one seems to get alot of transcription errors.

This could explain why some areas are seeing tests with positives but without alot of community activity. The flu in that area that has been found is less virulent due to its mutations. Whereas the the two New York strains are obviously pretty virulent in comparison.

NJ numbers jump today.

Since last Thursday, 31 new cases of swine flu have been identified across the state, for a total of 56 confirmed cases, according to health officials.

They had 25.

SO the logical reaction to finding the flu...

Szwalek said the state will not be testing any more students on campus for swine flu, and that the school will be implementing several steps to reduce the spread of the virus.

Source

Wayne Madsen of Online Journal and the Wayne Madsen Report writes...

"H1N1 synthetic flu may be test run for H5N1 avian flu"

onlinejournal.com...

Some key quotes from the article...

"WHO... succumbed to political pressure from Britain, Japan, China, and other nations led by corporate-beholden governments to keep the alert level at Level 5.

The fear is that once a vaccination against AH1N1 is started, the virus will re-assort itself into a hybrid H1N1/H5N1 strain or mutate into a new H5N1 strain. The current AH1N1 strain, as previously reported by WMR, contains synthetically gene-spliced two forms of human flu viruses, two forms of swine flu viruses, and a single form of avian flu virus.

What researchers have told us is that as long as the current AH1N1 can infect humans, it will not try to mutate. Even though there have been deaths from AH1N1, most of those infected are sick for up to four days, take Tamiflu or similar drugs, and recover with immunity from the hybrid or “novel” virus. The vaccination program will be a profit maker for such Big Pharma firms as Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline and Baxter International.

However, with vaccinations, the AH1N1 virus will, of course, be rejected by human hosts and cases around the world will decrease. However, then, the virus will begin to mutate in order to successfully infect human hosts. And when that happens, the new, newly-mutated virus will become much more transmissible and more pathogenic.

The nightmare scenario is that the new, mutated virus may take on the characteristics of H5N1 or the avian flu. The vaccines administered for AH1N1 will be ineffective against the new strain of H5N1 and the world may face a more deadly pandemic then the current AH1N1 outbreak. There are scientists at WHO who are aware of this scenario but their alarm has been suppressed by political and economic considerations."

Originally posted by Absum!
NJ numbers jump today.

Since last Thursday, 31 new cases of swine flu have been identified across the state, for a total of 56 confirmed cases, according to health officials.

They had 25.

SO the logical reaction to finding the flu...

Szwalek said the state will not be testing any more students on campus for swine flu, and that the school will be implementing several steps to reduce the spread of the virus.

Source

They know it is there. They are probably going to sequence it.

What more do they need to know.

Testing will not, and cannot, be done on any serious scale.

The testing is obviously only meant to indicate direction and velocity of viral transmission. To track mutating sequences. It isn't, and never could ever possibly be used to find total numbers.

"Because Avian H5N1 and the 1918 Swine Flu targeted young healthy people, the release of cytokines was more violent in the most healthy. This first wave is likely to recombine and after Phase 1 gene to population insertion, Phase 2 will result in new superstrains with additional genetic polymorphisms allow transfer efficiently to humans. Phase 2 is the bioreactor phase. In the emergent or Phase 3, new viral Clades of Swine /Avian hybrids will then have more efficient spreading and higher spontaneous lethality."

William Deagle, MD, rense.com...

------------------

"Are there possibilities that the influenza A H 1 N 1 can become more lethal?

Yes. If a genetic melting occur with H5N1 virus, which is highly lethal."


wiki.answers.com...

The mixing vessel for that would have to be a human.

Originally posted by Absum!

The true numbers directly tied to normal flu deaths are in the low thousands per year not thousands per month. Seriously, this flu in a month has passed the rate a normal flu can deliver.

Thanks for your post. It is good to get some clarity on the perspective issue.

Having said that, your figures still confuse me.

You say thousands die in New York from normal flu, and I read in an earlier post that 4 have died so far from Swine Flu, so where's the shock and horror here?

Please wake me up cos I am just not getting it.

If we ran a thread quoting daily incidents of death by medical malpractice/drug side effects (America's number one cause of death), and the media ran similar articles on an hourly basis, a lot of doctors would soon be out of business as no-one would want to go anywhere near them.

Really, is it not simply the focus on this flu that makes it appear so dangerous?

reply to post by RogerT


Roger - to me is merely the potential it has. Seasonal flus don't trigger cytokine storms. Seasonal flus don't have 20 mutations in a month. Novel viruses are novel for a reason. Flus which have been similar in nature have been problematic, even the short lived ones.

People aren't "dropping like flies." However, the death tolls on this will really only be seen retrospectively. The rise in pneumonia for example, in demographics that aren't usual.

It is just about the potential that I am interested. How it is moving. How fast. Lines of transmission. Targets. Co-factors. Changes, and if/when the chromosones stablize.

(don't tell me I should have been a doctor. I was going to go pre-med when I realized.....sick people annoy me. )

[edit on 2009/5/27 by Aeons]

Well that's refreshing. thanks.

If everyone in this thread could remember to use words like 'potential' then I think there would be much less resistance to the speculations and information coming forth.

The post 2 pages back quoted '2 more dead in NY, man they are dropping like flies', which does not really support any kind of pragmatic conversation about the issue.

When I can change the position of Swine flu in my sig from bottom of the list, then I'll start to believe this thing is anything more than yet another minor test of our immune systems

well according to the Sydney Morning Herald and the Newcastle Herald here in Australia it seems that there has been a doubling of confirmed cases in the Hunter area including a prominent local MP Jodie Mckay......

so we have roughly 25-30 cases here in NSW that are confirmed after the initial threat was cleared....

As much as people on here bash on Alex jones it seems he is spot on the money about this Swine Flu pandemic.....

*just saw on the national news that it is confirmed 28 cases in and around the Hunter area here near Newcastle....... great and I work in a shopping cente

reply to post by Absum!


this one isn't good for me

Originally posted by Absum!
NJ numbers jump today.

My daughter was invited to a birthday party in New Jersey last week. Since we all were sick I called to say that she wouldn't be going. When I talked to the mom I found out that she was sick. She said her other child was also sick. But they had no intention of cancelling the birthday party. Now ... this week ... that child who had the party is out sick from school. I'm willing to bet that all the kiddies who went to the birthday party are probably sick as well.

Freak'n morons. What's wrong with people? They infected everyone.

Thank GOD I called to say my child wouldn't be going.

:shk:

reply to post by FlyersFan


I can't believe natural selection is phasing out common sense. Why would parents in any situation let their kids do what they want and not be able to go to school later.? Yeesh, priorities, eh?

This morning - first confirmed case of Swine Flu in Romania (Eastern European country). The infected person just returned from an US tryp . I wonder what is the real situation in US if simply traveling there is enough to catch the flu! Also we have 2 other suspected persons - returning from Spain . Sure, we have to consider the aeroplane passangers as suspected too.

Originally posted by Romanian
This morning - first confirmed case of Swine Flu in Romania (Eastern European country). The infected person just returned from an US tryp . I wonder what is the real situation in US if simply traveling there is enough to catch the flu! Also we have 2 other suspected persons - returning from Spain . Sure, we have to consider the aeroplane passangers as suspected too.

As I said on a reply posted last week, the real number of infected in the US was at least 1.000 (ONE THOUSAND) higher (it may be more now).
It's mathematically impossible that the number of infected people in the USA is below 6 million.

Giving a CDR of about 0,4% and the latest real number of infected people, probably 24.000 people are going to die from swine flu in the USA. Some already died, but, since virtually nobody is being tested, it is easy for the government to hide the real cause of their deaths.

Univision

Suben a 119 los contagiados con gripe porcina en Chile; una mujer está grave

That's only the tip of the iceberg. As the winter is approaching here in the southern hemisphere, H1N1 virus will flourish, enhancing the probability of a mix with local, seasonal strains, leading to mutations in unpredictable ways.
Any vaccine created before this mutations will be useless on the mutated form of the virus as the molecular basis of the disease will change, altering the effectiveness of a vaccine.

Thread temporarily closed pending staff review. Thank you for your patience and please bear with us.

Thread Reopened

From THIS POINT FORWARD any member making an off-topic post will have their post deleted and be subject to a WARN and post ban. The member must wait 3 days prior to requesting the Post Ban lifted. When the request is made, the account will be reviewed by staff and a determination will be made about the status of the account.

As a reminder, telling someone else they're off-topic is off-topic. Asking in the thread for a moderator to do something about the off topics is off-topic.The way to get staff attention is to use the Alert function available in every post or Suggestion button from Member Tools.

Do NOT address off-topic remarks in a thread. Alert on them. If you're unclear about the rules, DON'T ASK ABOUT THEM IN THIS THREAD as that is not the THREAD TOPIC.

Please move forward accordingly.

WHO: Swine Flu Infections Top 15,000


Mexico reports 6 more swine flu deaths, toll at 95

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is reporting six more deaths from swine flu, bringing the country's toll to 95. The Health Department says that 4,974 people have been sickened nationwide. That number includes the 95 deaths. Health officials say 34 percent of those who died were obese and diabetic. Mexico says its epidemic has largely subsided, but the confirmed toll has been rising as scientists test a backlog of samples from patients. The department announced the new toll in a statement Thursday.

www.google.com...

The World Health Organisation has raised its global tally of swine flu infections to 15,510, an increase of more than 2,000 cases in two days.

The death toll increased by four since Wednesday to 99, it said.

The US reported 1,163 new cases and one death.

Mexico had 369 new cases and two deaths, while Australia's cases more than doubled to 147.

Although the virus has now spread to 53 countries, the vast majority of cases and deaths so far have occurred in North America, WHO said.

news.bbc.co.uk...

The health secretary has announced two more people have been confirmed to have contracted swine flu in Scotland, taking the total to 16.

The two new cases are from the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area.

They are the wife of a 37-year-old man who remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital and the family's 11-year-old child.

Two more probable cases of swine flu have been detected among pupils at a Glasgow primary school.